I'm only halfway through TR2 myself, but I still remember the centaurs with grenade bazookas in TR1 that would shoot you while you try to get out of the water. Is it worse than that?
First few seconds of the very first level: you do a step forward, you're starting to slide down and out of nowhere there are spikes you have to jump over. You jump too late: you're dead. You jump too soon: you're dead. Those centaurs are nothing compared to that because at least they are a) a boss fight, b) a couple of levels into the game.
EDIT: To remember the first level I've just watched the let's play of it on YouTube. To add to the description of how cruel the game can be: while you are sliding down, you can notice a flat space on the side of the slide with some items laying there (a health pack and some ammo). With some skills you can jump there (but you still need to know it's even there first, because you can't just stop sliding or go back up there). And when you start picking up the health pack, the screen starts to shake: it's a boulder that rolls down and lands just where the health pack is/was. So if you don't move in time, you end up dead. Again: first minutes of the game.
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